Combining security, pleasure and creativity

Fifty years after it was created, Office Freylinger is a team of 45 people dedicated to their profession and driven by human values.  The six members of the management team look back on the firm’s accomplishments to date with pride, keen to capitalise on these solid bases to secure a better future.
 
Fifty years after it was created, Office Freylinger relies on a large team.  What is its distinctive feature?
Jean Beissel: Today, we have the chance to rely on a team of 45 people who come from very different backgrounds: engineers and lawyers, but also paralegal staff who follow up the different cases. Because our field is highly specific and specialised, we recruit people with widely varied profiles, whom we then train in house. Beyond skills, however, we make sure that our clients and employees can benefit from a multicultural environment in terms of the languages spoken here and the origin of each and everyone.
 
What are the values that drive this group?
Pierre Kihn: We base our development on three key values:  security, pleasure and creativity. The field of intellectual property protection is often seen as being very formalised and even austere. This is not our view, and  that is the reason, we think, that very many clients like to work with us.
 
How do you explain pleasure in this context?
Pierre Kihn: It is connected to the passion we all have for our profession. We like what we do and take a great deal of pleasure in doing it. It is an essential factor that enables us to serve our custumers their development, and their ideas optimally on a daily basis. This passion is directly perceptible in the relations we maintain with our clients who, we hope, have as much pleasure in working with us as we do in working with them.
 
Intellectual property entails having recourse to many formal elements and at times complex legal notions. How is creativity expressed in such a field?
Olivier Laidebeur: By providing appropriate, customised solutions to meet the needs of our clients. Intellectual property protection naturally relies on elements of law. But our role resides first and foremost in understanding the situation of each of our clients, what they have, and what they would like to obtain, so as to deploy the tools at our disposal to serve them best. Furthermore, our clients are creative persons, with a real wealth to protect. It makes sense, as they see, for their interlocutors to show curiosity and creativity in their efforts to serve them in optimal fashion at all times.
 
Does the growing complexity of intellectual property constitute a driving force for creativity?
Philippe Ocvirk: Our creativity must help us see through all that complexity to present solutions for guaranteed production for their business in as comprehensible a manner as possible at all times. It is important to forego the legal jargon and speak the client’s language.
 
How does Office Freylinger combine security with pleasure and creativity?
Henri Kihn: Presented like that, these values may appear difficult to reconcile.  But they are reconcilable nonetheless. The prime objective of intellectual property is to provide security. The clients who come to us are looking to protect an R&D investment, an idea or a creation. We are determined to have each of them feel secure with us. And we guarantee such security through the pleasure that we take in doing our job, which goads us to show ever creativity in the service of the client.  At Office Freylinger, security is provided also through sound management – for the client and for our employees.
 
How do you see the future after fifty years in the business?
Romain Lambert: The future holds an air of mistery for us all. Nothing ever remains static. We expect major developments in the simplification of procedures, consolidation of offices, more possibilities for multi-jurisdictional coverage. Against such a background, Office Freylinger must continue to create value in the advice and guidance for clients. Our multidisciplinary, multicultural, and multilingual team is our finest winning asset for tackling the challenges of the future.
 
What are you most proud of when you look back on your accomplishments?
Pierre Kihn: Without the shadow of a doubt, it is the prevailing ambiance, the pleasure we get from working together. The economic health of a company is important, of course.  But the human dimension, the opportunity to work with fine, competent people, with mutual trust and respect, is a winning asset that makes many envious of us.